NerdWallet, a startup focused on financial education and
empowerment,
crunched some numbers to figure out how many rides drivers would have to give
to earn $50,000, $75,000, and $100,000.

After looking at the numbers, NerdWallet had a few big takeaways:

Based on their data, drivers can, on average, make more
working for Uber than for Lyft and Sidecar in most places. Uber
drivers make an average of $15.97 per ride with Uber, as opposed
to Lyft ($11.48) and Sidecar ($13.35).

In order to make $50,000 a year, an Uber driver must
provide 60.21 rides every week. A Lyft driver would
have to provide 83.76 rides, and a Sidecar driver would have
to provide 72.03 rides. To put that in perspective, 60.21 rides
each week equates to between 20 and 21 hours of driving per week
for an Uber driver.

To make $100,000 a year, drivers have to give
120.42, 167.52, and 144.05 rides every week on Uber,
Lyft, and Sidecar, respectively.

NerdWallet used data from SherpaShare, which lets drivers track
their expenses and income, to figure out how many rides drivers
have to accept in order to make $50,000, $75,000, and $100,000 in
pre-tax income.

The study looked at 14 of the biggest US markets for the
three ridesharing services: Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas,
Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Salt Lake
City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington,
D.C.

This is what NerdWallet has to say about how drivers can
make $50,000. It all has to do with where and when you're
driving:

"Driver utilization” for New York City’s
yellow cabs is about 50%, which means that for each hour
drivers work, they are ferrying passengers 50% of the time.
SherpaShare’s per trip fare data for Uber shows that the
average driver would have to drive 20.47 hours each week to
make $50,000 a year. However, from anecdotal
evidence and investigative reports, it is likely
that the average driver utilization for ridesharing is much
less than 50%.

Of course, the study has some caveats. NerdWallet chose to
focus only on UberX and ignore UberBLACK or Uber SUV. And the
information from SherpaShare — trip fare, distance and
time data — comes from just a fraction of all Uber, Lyft, and
Sidecar drivers on the road. But nonetheless, it's an interesting
glimpse into what drivers need to do in order to in order to make
a livable wage.